His Companion
by JackpotGirl
Summary: Damon Salvatore is a broken man, everybody knows that...but when he meets mysterious and intriguing Millie, who's determined to fix his heart, everything changes in Mystic Falls - for vampires and humans alike. Used to be called "Pretty Normal" R
1. Pretty Normal

**Author's Note**: Just taking a shot at this...I have no idea where this is going, I'll leave it as a one-shot for now unless you guys want more...but please don't ask me what I thought when I wrote this, because I really didn't think much at all...you'll notice.

-- I've decided to continue this story...but please do leave me a line, tell me what you think. :)

I don't own anything but the pretty weird girl. (Pictures on my profile)

**HIS COMPANION - The Vampire Diaries**

**Chapter One  
**

**Pretty Normal**

It was a pretty normal day in Mystic Falls, the sun shone in a pretty normal way, the trees swayed a little with the soft breeze, pretty normal.

And, pretty normal, Damon Salvatore walked around casually around the streets of the little village, watching all these pretty normal people who all had their own guesses who, or even what he was, some of them might close to the truth, some of them might right, but most hilariously wrong. He knew them all, their names, where they lived, their secrets, their hidden desires and they bored him. Their heartaches, their money-problems, their undisclosed desires, their fiery, greedy need for attention and affection and their hilarious attempts to get it...and their hilarious failures in doing so.

They're lives sucked just as much as his which was about the only thing that could lighten his mood on that pretty normal day in Mystic Falls.

Elena wasn't Katherine. And it had been Katherine...as miraculous as it seemed, kissed him on the porch that night. Katherine was back. But it wasn't Katherine anymore, not the way she used to be, he could see that right away and it killed him inside, knowing that he'd lost her a second time, she'd become...and it was funny that him of all people used that term...evil. He'd loved her once for being so good, for being pure and true and kind-hearted, all the things he could never be. Not because he was evil but because he knew where being pure and true would eventually take you. And it wasn't a place where he wanted to end up.

He'd cringed when he realized that he'd wanted that kiss on the porch so bad to be Elena's and even more when he had to admit that she would never be his, he still felt weak in the knees. He had lost Katherine and he would never have Elena. And that was exactly why it sucked to be pure and true, because someone, most of the time people you cared about, took your innocence and purity and fed you lies to stuff you up, make you so full you couldn't move. He'd felt like that, absolutely petrified. It was pathetic, he didn't have a heart, yet it had been broken...another time.

He swore that this would never happen again, he might not go back to blood-rushed maniac but he would never, even unconsciously leave his dead heart in the hands of someone else to play with. He tried to get the stone-wall back around him and it worked somewhat well, he actually felt...pretty normal again.

He'd just crossed a street and walked down an alley, passing pretty normal trimmed gardens in front of pretty normal two story houses where pretty normal people led their pretty normal lives. None of them could walk a mile in his shoes. And then something caught his attention, not so much his human attention, more his animalistic instincts. A scent flooded his nostrils, a sweet peachy note, definitely human, innocent, thin-skinned, and a hint of rain-drops hitting sizzling hot concrete in August.

It drew him closer, hidden in the woods he quickly dived into, slowly approaching a backyard, a swing set and the origin of the intoxicating scent his vampire senses had picked up.

It was a girl, almost a child, her shimmery ginger hair framed her pretty normal face the way she sat on the swing, swaying back and forth staring into nothingness. She might have been seventeen, or eighteen but not a day older, she had not seen evil in her life.

And he had never seen her, he was sure. He would have remembered this girl, not only because of that unique smell of hers but also because of her lime green sparkling eyes that seemed to reflect the sunshine like a prism, human eyes could never appreciate the wonderful colors that were reflected from them and they would have seemed pretty normal to them but not to him, not him, who could really see her.

He'd gotten a lot closer, a lot lot closer and he almost didn't hear the stick of wood breaking underneath his weight as consumed as he was in watching her, watching her out of sheer fascination, not hunger, not lust, only...a weird sense of curiosity. She was so young.

And she was now aware that she wasn't alone. He hesitated, was he going to run? Could he? He didn't know anymore, something about this girl captivated him, drew him closer as if she was a radiating magnet, pulling him nearer. And then her diamond eyes caught his.

"I can see you", she said dryly, not even the slightest hint of fear in her voice, not even irritation, even her heartbeat, that he heard thudding in his head, changed a bit. She was calm. As if finding that a man is watching you from the woods was pretty normal.

What was he doing? It was too late to run, but could he just step out of the dim shadows? What would he say? How could he explain?

She narrowed her eyes, as if to spot him, tilted her head forward and bit her lip, trying to see through the twigs,a s if her poorly gifted human eyes could make him out if he didn't want them to.

But then again he did and it took only two steps to cross the line from wood to backyard and there he stood, weirded out.

Completely weirded out, she still showed no sign of wonder, no faint twitch of her features, just some sort of bemused curiosity. Her expression was a mirror to his.

"You're not from around here", this was the first thought that crossed his brain, the first words he somehow felt demanded to say.

"No, I'm not", still she was speaking with such poise as if nothing could ever shake her and he couldn't look away from her sparkling eyes of diamond.

With a swift movement she pushed herself from the swing, her white dress stirring only a little and her freckled skin shimmering in the gentle sunlight, she was a pretty normal girl, yet she was the furthest away from ordinary. She stood about ten feet away from him and the way she studied his face he felt x-rayed, from top to bottom and he caught himself catching his breath, what was happening to him?

"You seem sad", she said and it wasn't even a question, it was a statement.

He was baffled. This was weird. And he was a vampire, he shouldn't be finding anything weird.

She still pierced him with her glowing eyes as she came towards him, firm, secure, unhesitant steps, graceful as a ballerina and purposeful as an assassin, going in for the kill. She didn't pause until she was at an arms length away from him.

She studied his features once more, resting on his face, like digging into his soul and suddenly he felt tongue-tied and uncomfortably exposed and – like a child – she lifted her tiny hands and ever so slowly and gently, with a touch light as a feather and burning like fire, her fingers reached out to touch, traveling down from his temple, along his cheek, down to his jaw-line, where she paused, her thumb lightly underneath his chin. He wasn't breathing. It couldn't get any weirder.

When she spoke again she took her hand away from his face, eying it shortly in something that looked like surprise.

"What brought you here?", she asked.

"I...", it took him a while to find his speech again, "I have no idea"

"Well...I think I do", she said and it seemed like she was smirking...if anything...smug?

"I don't understand", this was the absolute truth. Damon felt like he'd lost complete control over the situation and he didn't like it much.

"Everything happens for a reason, doesn't it?", she said, now a smile visible on her face, "so I guess whatever made you come here was important, or maybe...whatever made _me_ come here was important"

"Who are you?"

She didn't answer, instead she raised her hand again and gently put it on top of where his heart should have been, he felt her blood being pumped through her veins, felt it on top of his chest as if it was his own heartbeat and she caught his eye again.

"I think I can fix this", it was the seriousness that made his jaw drop ever so slightly, what was happening? What happened to him in that pretty normal background behind a pretty normal two-story house in a pretty normal small-town with that anything but pretty normal girl?

**So what do you think? Too weird? Or kind of entertaining...any guesses what this girl is the hell about? (Because I really don't have any idea yet)...xx**


	2. Quite Mystic Falls

**Author's Note: **So I did have an idea for a story-line, so I guess I'm gonna give it a try and see if anyone cares to read it, but I have one big request: somehow my 'Story Traffic & Stats' don't show any hits or views, so I have no idea how many people are even reading it, so if you have a minute, drop me a short line, just so I can see if anyone actually cares to read this!

For pictures of Millie see my profile, there are three of them, manipulations made by moi.

Thanks&Enjoy!

**Chapter Two**

**Quite Mystic Falls**

Damon Salvatore was speechless which was as good as a first for him, he was never lost for words he always had a witty comeback ready, a smart answer somewhere in the back of his brain to silence anyone who got in his way. But looking down on this mystery girl, the one who had shown up in Mystic Falls out of nowhere and had drawn him to her magically, as if she was a girl-shaped magnet, pulling him towards her. Her hand still rested on his chest, her fingertips thudding with the blood her heart pumped rhythmically through her veins. He wondered if she had already noticed that she could only feel her own heartbeat when she touched him.

"Go now, we'll talk tomorrow", she said, removing her hand gracefully and as if her words commanded his movements he retreated, only a few steps and he was about to go but...

"Where?", where would they talk? When would he see her again?

"Tomorrow in school", a smile and a tiny wink and then she disappeared into the house, her wavy hair dancing in the wind.

And the second she was out of sight it seemed like a curtain of fog was lifted from his mind, he felt like coming back to his senses again. What had just happened? Why had he been so starstruck? This was just an average little girl, almost a child, a human, innocent child and she had been like a force of nature, like a hit with lightning, like thunder and he had radiated towards her as if there was no other way to go and even now it seemed like an invisible rope tied to her pulled at him with a force he could hardly stand.

But that wasn't him, Damon Salvatore didn't feel like this...he was immune to allurement, he caused it, he didn't fall under it.

He stumbled back to the woods, ran back to their residence and found the house empty, it looked like Stefan was with his precious Elena and Damon enjoyed the space and peace, lying down on his king-sized bed, starring at the ceiling. Whenever he closed his eyes he saw mystical girls diamond eyes, they came to him like a vision, he couldn't make the image go away and when he fell asleep he dreamed vividly of her and all through the night he felt like stones lay on his heart, pressing him down into the sheets, he felt so heavy with the tons of feelings her picture in his head caused him, he had to admit that he was almost scared by it. Mostly because it didn't feel normal, the amount of affection she commanded of him from the first second on wasn't rational, if anything, it was mystical.

xxx

_Wow._

_I wouldn't have expected this to happen so fast. I don't even know if I'm ready yet. I mean...I'm only nineteen, I don't know if I can do this. I thought I had until collage at least. _

_I saw him today, god, I've only moved here...Mystic Falls, quite mystic Falls if I might say. You can feel the supernatural, it's everywhere. And like on cue he was there, in my backyard, I saw him between the trees. He is quite beautiful, actually he is gorgeous. But I don't really think he knows what's in store for him._

_I don't think I know, either._

xxx

..

Casually strolling down the schoolyard the next morning he tried not to look out for her, even though it was about all he could think about but it wasn't until on the corridor that he spotted her closing her locker, seeing him immediately and smiling that captivating, magnetic smile.

And on cue all the feelings from the day before were back, his throat dried completely, he was tongue-tied and couldn't possibly take his eyes of her, his arms yearned with the desire to close around her tiny body, to dug his fingertips in her fiery hair and never let go. He felt more than weird, he felt enchanted. Was that even possible? Had she bewitched him?

"Hey there", she said as she walked across the way to stand beside him and he could only nod, automatically all thoughts swept from his brain with his eyes locked on hers, "how are you?"

"Okay, I guess", he shrugged, happy to know what to say to at least that and then another thing that wanted out crossed his lips, "You never told me your name"

She responded with a vague smile before she put out her hands, "Millie, Mildred Shaw, nice to meet you"

"I'm Damon...Salvatore", he said shaking her hand, again surprised from her light touch that caused flames wherever their skin met.

"A senior, I take?", she asked and let go of him, looking up curiously as they started to make their way through the corridor.

"Yeah", he said but he had the idea that she looked almost a bit knowing, as if she was to lift up her eyebrow and giggle, as if she was well aware that he wasn't as much of a High School senior than a senior in general, a very senior senior, who only looked pretty young and handsome for his respectable age of around 170 years. She really looked like she knew. Just like the day before when she touched his non-beating heart and seemed no bit surprised by the missing beat of it. If he'd been in a right state of mind, he'd be worried, he'd be suspicions, he'd see her as a threat, he'd wonder why he was so attracted to her and why he had no interest in drinking her blood at the same time, why he wanted to possess her, love her but didn't want to kill her, why with her all his vampire needs were shut up by his human ones.

"Damon", it was a familiar voice who ended his thoughts and the two of them on their way through the hallway and he reluctantly took his eyes away from Millie to find his brothers worried face, he did only so much as to look at him, warningly, questioningly.

Why did he walk around with such a fragile looking human girl? _No idea. _What was he up to? _Nothing, man._ Was he going to get them in trouble again? _Not intensionally. _

"This is Millie", he said into the blue, wanting to display his nonchalance, calming his brother that he was not looking for a quick lunch between classes, "she's new. Millie, this is my brother Stefan"

"Hi, nice to meet you", she smiled brightly and Stefan himself seemed fascinated as well, shaking her hand with a look on his face that Damon would have had to name flabbergasted.

But that quickly faded as Elena walked around the corner and linked arms with him. Damon still felt the stitches when the two of them were close like that, how she looked at his brother with that deep confidence that they would always be together.

He quickly learned that he had not kissed Elena that night and he was smart enough not to mention it to her, they had fought Katherine not very successfully, she was in the wind and the way he knew her, she was persistent enough to wait long enough for everyone to feel safe and attack again when their guards were down.

Like a flash a deep rooted concern washed over him, but he wasn't concerned for himself of Elena or Stefan, he was concerned for the girl beside him, who'd just shaken Elena's hand and asked her about the teachers at school. His insides wrenched at the thought of her hurt because she was at the wrong town at the wrongest time.

"Damon, are you alright?", again his brother ended his trail of thoughts, eying him irritatedly, "you don't look well"

He knew, he felt every muscle a strain in his face, he had no idea what was happening to him, why he was so not himself since the moment this mystic girl had laid eyes on him. And right then and there he decided that he wouldn't have it, he was immune to magic, he wouldn't fall under what was clearly some sort of smell.

"It's nothing", he said harshly, "I just can't be bothered to show a newbie around, could you take care of her?"

And with no further explanation he left the three of them where they were and made sure to brush Millie's sleeve hard before disappearing behind the corner.

xxx

_Now this wasn't cool._

_He just practically ran away from me, and I don't understand it because it had went so well. I just knew it when he showed up in my yard, it was just like Madame said; he'll find me. Well he found me, now what? He should be aware, he should know what this means. _

_But he prefers to run away...awesome._

xxx


	3. Immune

**Author's Note: **Check out the fanart to this story on my profile! Thanks for everyone who's commented yet.

Hello to Danielle and Cassidy, good to have you on board with this :)

Drop me a line, everyone. Thanks!

**Chapter Three**

**Immune**

She was there, in every last one of his classes. She smiled politely and once sat a row behind, once a row in front of him, near in Literature, far in Maths. He could smell her across the room as if she sat right on his lap. All the time he had to keep himself from starring at her or reach out to just touch what ever part of her he could reach. Stefan eyed him suspiciously still as they met on their way to lunch. She was a few paces behind them, he could tell, he'd already studied the pattern of her steps on the floor, he would never forget how it sounded.

"Seriously, Damon, are you okay? You...really look undead today", he said with his tight worried face.

"I'm fine", Damon replied and walked quicker as he heard Millie get closer, hearing both her steps fasten and feeling her gravitational pull on him grow. And across the room he saw what he'd been looking for. Deliberately, though quicker than needed he walked to the slim figure who sat in front of a plate of mashed potatoes and seemed a bit annoyed that he spoke to her when she was just about to grab her first bite.

"Bonnie", he said as hello and made sure he looked exactly like someone who needed a minute to talk.

"Damon", she forced a smile onto her face, she hated his guts, but that was partly because she thought he was sexy...he knew it, "how do you want to make a so far so good day miserable?"

"Oh, I thought I'd slid your throat in front of all of these people and have a little blood-fest to start of", he tilted his head and felt the sarcasm practically drip from his lips and before he continued he made sure to acknowledge Bonnie's 'Screw You'-look, "Actually I have a question"

"Shoot", she said after a second of internal deliberating, "but make it quick, people are starting to look, I don't wanna be associated with you"

After nodding smugly at her silly insult he sat down beside her, ignoring her vaguely shocked expression and toned his voice down, so no one would overhear their conversation.

"You're a witch, right?", he started, scanning the room if anyone looked at them too curiously.

"Yes", she said dryly, "need another demonstration?"

"No, thanks, I've had enough of those", he smiled his signature-smile, the cocky one, "You see that girl over there? The red-head?"

"The pretty one?", Bonnie asked and found Millie with Elena who seemed to have taken it upon her to show the new girl around.

"Is she pretty? I don't know, I don't care if she's pretty", he said just a fragment to fast and he hoped dearly that her not-vampire ears had missed how his voice broke at the end of his sentence, "Just tell me if she's a witch...or some other weird thing"

"I can't tell that from a distance", she almost snorted and he had the uncomfortable feeling that she was trying to figure him out.

"Then get closer, there's something off about her", he insisted and tried to emphasis the urgency when he realized that he was still looking at Millie as if hypnotized, looking at her shiny hair, how her eyes glistened in the midday sun, he quickly broke free from the image and found his way back to Bonnie who seemed...amused?

"I see what I can do", she said with a hint of a smile in her voice, "Now, if you would excuse me, there are people here who _need_ to eat"

"Thanks, Bonnie", funny how saying 'Thank You' had stopped being weird a while ago. He was becoming such a wimpy baby...he was becoming...Stefan. _Ew._

He left Bonnie as Elena and Stefan...and Millie...came towards it.

"Aren't you gonna sit with us?", Elena asked when he passed them by, feeling Millie's eyes glued to him, holding his breath as he walked past her.

"No", exhale, "I'm going home", inhale, god she smelled like lemonade on a hot summer day, "I'm not feeling well"

He said it as smug as he could, he didn't want them to believe he actually did feel bad, that he wanted to get away from this person who made him feel so exposed, so vulnerable. Bonnie should better come up with something good on that one.

xxx

_He left at lunch, he went home, now I've got two more hours and he isn't there, man, school is boring no matter where you are...but maybe I simply shouldn't rush things. I've got time right, it's not like I have to break the target once I've found it._

_I'm not a spy._

xxx

After another day of avoiding Millie and Elena and Stefan for that matter, Damon found Bonnie at the baseball court outside school and was more than ready to get some answers.

He'd dreamed of her again, still the same scene, her on that swing, her wavy hair flying around her face, dancing wildly with the sun rays and that ever so lively scent of hers. It lingered in his memories as if he'd slept in her bed, it seemed how harder he tried to get away from her in real life, the more intense his dreams became, like an addict staying away from a fix.

With that worrisome thought he came to a halt next to Bonnie and waited patiently for her to plug her in-ears out.

"So?", he said as soon as she had them put away.

"So", she repeated, "She's a nice girl, bubbly as far as I could tell and she is definitely not a witch"

"But that isn't possible -", the thoughts spun in his head, she couldn't be normal, the effect she had on him was not _normal_.

"- However, I'm not sure that she in entirely human", Bonnie continued and had his full attention, "I mean, she is human but...I think she's special, but I can't tell you more at the moment"

"But there is definitely something off about her", Damon repeated more to himself, "It's not normal"

"What's not normal?", asked Bonnie curiously, although it seemed to surprise her that she was curious about something he said, before he could say "Nothing", she looked like she internally pinched herself for even caring.

Unable to not smile at this he left her on the court and went to school, for the third day of trying not to cross Millie's way.

What made it easier was that he could hear and smell her approaching, he could almost tell in which room she was, he knew for a fact in which wing she was, if he would study her scent more, he'd be able to tell that as well...with a few more days of training.

It was ridiculous that he was running away from a girl, a little weird girl that he could smash in a heartbeat.

He stood abruptly. The same distinct pain he'd felt two days before when he imagined something bad happening to her, flashed through him, only mixed with guilt this time, because _he'd_ thought about hurting her. He could never hurt her, that was as sure as the fact that he was scared witless by the notion.

"Are you avoiding me?", how did he not feel her coming? Had he been so occupied with his thoughts that his other senses blacked out? She stood there in a poker-dotted summer-dress and he gasped at the sudden urge to drag her into the next classroom and tear it off.

"I'm busy", he said automatically and tried not to stare at her – it was useless.

"Busy faking sick?", she smiled wryly and tilted her pretty head. And he had an idea.

"Don't you want to go to the library to study a little on your own?", he said, willing her to want exactly that, making her do what he wanted her to, using his very useful gift on her.

"No, actually not", she said. She'd said no. He tried again, stared her down.

She just looked at him funny.

"Are you okay?"

No he was _not._ She was immune. She was immune to his power, she wouldn't do what he told her to do. S_o she wasn't human._ Or was she? She had a heart and a beat along with it and her skin was fair and fragile like her bones, she was so breakable, so tiny, she was defenseless...except for the fact that she was _immune to his gift._

"Um", he was stuttering, of all people, he, Damon Salvatore was stuttering, this wasn't possible and he couldn't just ask her why his magic was no use on her, "Well, what do you want to do?"

Wow, where did this come from? He didn't care what she wanted to do. Why did he even ask?

She looked quite hopeful.

"_We_ should want to go to maths now..but if you want out, I'd have an idea", she smirked happily and Damon was sure that she had somehow sneaked her way into his head because it certainly didn't nod at his account.

"Okay", he heard himself say and felt his strong, pathetically obeying vampire body drawn behind Millie's as she took the lead, taking a leap that lead to the Mystic Falls cemetery. Where he had first seen Elena.

He followed her silently until she found a place that seemed convenient for her and she let her bag and herself drop to the grass and locked eyes with him until he sat down beside her.

They sat next to each other in silence and after a while he gave the battle not to look at her lost. She stared back, confidently.

"So why were you avoiding me?", a smile and a wink.

"I wasn't", he insisted, not finding his smile in return, he was still too confused, simply being there with her.

"And what were you up to? As busy as you were? What do you do for business...or pleasure, Mr. Salvatore?"

"Er...I...I don't know", what did he do, apart from hunting down deer in the woods and other things she wouldn't precisely understand, "I read a lot"

_Seriously? I read a lot?_

"Really?", she giggled as brisk laugh of ringing bells, "You didn't struck me much as a reading type, you look more like someone who drives a motorcycle and stays up late at night"

He couldn't help but laugh, quietly , hesitantly, but he couldn't help it. She amused him, how she just said what she thought when she was thinking it.

"So what do you do for pleasure, Miss Shaw?", he asked her, feeling at least a bit of his attitude coming back to him, if only so slowly.

"I dance and I sing in the shower, I'm a cheerleader"

"Really? A cheerleader?", he was dying to see her in that outfit.

"Gotta support the team", she shrugged with a wry smile and removed a lone curl from her forehead.

"Damon", she said after a while where he'd kept studying her features, "You do know that it's no use to run away from me?"

"What?"

"It's inevitable", she looked him straight in the eye with a certainty that made it very easy to believe her every word, "You will find me everywhere I go"

"What do you mean?", why did she always have to be so cryptic, how was he ever going to figure her out if she kept speaking in riddles?

"You'll figure it out soon enough", she leaned against the tree, so sure of herself it was unsettling, "Meanwhile you can try and get used to the thought"

"I don't like the thought", he said like a stubborn child, angry that she obviously knew something he didn't, outraged that she seemed to know what she was doing to him, "I don't like it"

"You're free to go, you can leave all you want", she came back placid and took a beat, letting her eyes travel down his face, "but you don't want to, right? And you wish you could help it but you can't"

With that she sat up and was suddenly very, very close to him.

"If you had wanted to leave you'd already be gone", she whispered, "You're not the kind of guy to stick through things you don't like doing"

He could feel her breath hitting his lips, he saw her biting hers, he vaguely realized that she was yet a bit closer to him.

"Who are you?", he asked again, his voice barely audible.

"I'm the missing piece to the puzzle", she said under her breath, her lips still parted from the vowel as she came closer, as she almost touched his skin.

He held his breath, his knuckles turned white, his hands clenched to fists so he wouldn't crush her, he was mindless, he wanted to grab her, it was like something else had taken possession of his mind and it demanded her, needed her closer, so much closer, he would press his lips on hers hard, he would crash his lips on hers, he would never let go.

_Stop. _What was he doing? What was happening? He needed room to breathe, this was too much, the pull was too heavy, it was more that he could bare because it left him unprotected, he felt his guard sinking, felt himself becoming unaware of his surroundings, that couldn't happen, he needed to be always vigilant.

Whatever she did, it was supernatural and it was dangerous, it drew him away from himself.

And before he could take another breath of that air that was filled with her and lured him to this promising kiss, he took off into the woods and didn't stop running until he was far behind the borders of Mystic Falls.

But the same he wished that he could just stay there he had the dooming certainty that he would go back, that he'd get another fix, that he had become addicted to the deadliest drug.

xxx

_I don't know what is happening to me, it's like he's...magnetic or something...if anyone could hear my thoughts when he's around...what pops up in my head...I can't control myself._

_I don't know if I can do this. _

_He is eating me alive and he hasn't even put one hand on me._

xxx


	4. To Be Burned

**Chapter Four**

**To Be Burned?**

"_I've had enough of dreaming and all my dreams are you" - Ellie Goulding_

The woods around Mystic Falls weren't big enough for Damon Salvatore that night and he fought like a madman against the need to go back to Millie's house, to just sneak into her bedroom and watch her sleep. But he was stronger than that.

He was stronger than that.

He kept telling himself that as he ran back to the boarding house and when he finally got to bed. He would simply ignore it all, he could do that, he would just pretend this morning had never happened. He was Damon Salvatore, not just anybody, he was strong and confident and – damn it! She was just a little girl, he wouldn't let her cramp his style. That simply wasn't going to happen.

When he closed his eyes he stubbornly focused on the colors that appeared in his vision and it wasn't until he softly glided into dreaming that fiery schemes and sparkling green eyes filled his vision again.

The next days seemed to have no end. He hid out, like a pathetic coward, just the way he hadn't wanted to. He sat through all his classes with Millie in the room, and all rooms full of Millie.

He skipped lunches because Elena had happened to befriend her almost quicker than the rest of the school did. Everyone loved her. Everyone talked about the cute red-head, the funny one, all the boys stared after her, he heard them contemplate weather to ask her out or not, saying the sight of her sitting in the library, staring into nothingness with an absent peaceful smile on her face was the most extraordinary and beautiful thing they'd ever seen...okay they would say that if they had any idea how to fully articulate what her sight did to them...but for them 'She's hot' did it, obviously.

These idiots, as if they stood any chance with her. She was so far off all their leagues it was pathetic that they even dared to let their lips cross her name.

_What?_

Damon furiously put his head back into the book he didn't really read, the words just flew past him, he saw them but he couldn't make any sense of it. No even his thoughts were betraying him, it was one thing for his body or maybe even for his unconscious to disobey him, to be triggered by her beauty, to be in flames, brightly, with desire and lust and blind rage when anyone looked at her the wrong way but it crossed a line when his mind went restricted places. When he became affectionate, protective and...no, he wouldn't say sentimental.

This had to stop. He rose of his seat, not allowing himself one more look on her, sitting at the other side of the library when he was stopped mid-movement by a certain Ex-girlfriend lookalike.

"Hey Damon", Elena smiled politely, "Leaving already?"

"Er, yeah", he said brittle, _just leave me alone_, "I've got stuff to do"

"Seems like it, you're never around these days, I wonder why you even bother coming to school anymore", the way she said that it was hard to tell if she was genuinely concerned or genuinely amused.

"Really?", _dumbest answer yet, well done._

"Really", pause, "Can I ask you something?"

"Can't this wait, I really need to go", _lame._

She just gave him this look, this typically Elena-look of saying: "You're not gonna go, you're gonna stay here and do everything I want"

Too bad this still worked with him. He really needed to get less attached to people. It was nothing but trouble.

"Why do you hate Millie so much?", and then one of her accusing-looks, he hadn't seen one of those in a bit, the last time when she realized that her little brother had decided to be an immortal soul. Somehow she'd blamed him for this and only when he'd taken sole care of Jeremy for his first week as a vampire she forgave him. But the look was back again, blaming as ever.

"She's never done a thing to you"

"I don't hate her", he said firmly, for once sure that he was not lying and hating it at the same time, "But I don't have to print her face on my t-shirt like everybody else does"

"She's a good girl", she insisted stubbornly, "You should give her a chance, you'd like her"

"Yeah, whatever, Elena", and like too many times lately he ended the argument by simply walking away. He used to talk everybody down. He didn't like the guy he was becoming one bit.

Ten minutes before he had to be in class he threw himself on his chair and fixed his eyes on the pine tree outside the window.

Bonnie should better come up with an accurate explanation in time...and an accurate cure or spell or potion or whatever she did about the freaky things that bothered her – or him in this case.

It wasn't until few minutes later that he caught his reflection in the window glass and almost jumped because he was so shocked by what he saw.

He was brooding. Goddammit, for fuck's sake, he was fucking brooding. He was fucking _becoming Stefan_.

He shook his head violently as if it would take both the image and the memory of himself so deep in contemplation away but the red and green sparks he saw and the peachy air that hit his face made his stomach turn with anxiety. What in hell was happening to him?

"Oh", Millie stood in the door, books in hand, looking awkward, caught out, a mirror image of him, for a second she looked like she was turning to leave but then she changed her mind and stood in place.

"I'm sorry", she said after an endless moment of their gazed locked, unable to turn away, "about the other day. I...I don't know...uh, I...I didn't mean to...make you run away from me at _inhuman _speed"

Silence. And more silence and Damon's non-existent heartbeat fastened. She knew. Right? She had to. Did Elena tell her? Would she? No, she wouldn't, she couldn't.

"I have no idea what you're talking about", gladly his brain chose to function again, if he was loosing his mind he shouldn't be blowing their cover on top.

"I know...my jokes are lame", a small smile crossed her face that he had to painfully fight not to return, "I was trying to fish for a compliment, some girls do that, I thought you'd might say something like: I didn't run away from you at inhuman speed, I just forgot to turn the oven off"

How much self-control was needed to hide the desire to smile from oneself? He was finding it out that second, pushing his boundaries yet further.

"Our house would've burned down if I hadn't left just then", _thank you._

She giggled her brisk chime-like laugh and pursed her lips. She must've been the most beautiful girl in the world.

"Anyway, I thought-", she started.

"-Millie, what's up, hon?", Matt entered with that smug grin, putting his sorry arm around her shoulder and pulling her away. _I could bite it off...and his smug ass face along with it._

It wasn't more than a regretting look over Millie's shoulder that smothered his rage right then and there. She'd rather talk to him. He knew.

xxx

_I'm out of my wits. I don't know why he hates me. This wasn't the plan._

xxx

Class ended and Damon made sure to leave the building before anyone else could catch up with him. Was there any use to run at all? Obviously he wasn't very well with suppressing feelings. He'd never really been good with that if he had to be honest. That had been one of the reasons on that godforsaken day that he'd chosen immortality and a heart of stone over suffering through the loss of Katherine.

But was he really giving up that easy?

When he arrived at home Jeremy was already waiting for him. He was still out of school, because the risk that he would freak out and do something stupid was still to imminent, but he was doing good for such a young vampire. He hadn't hurt anyone yet and he was okay with settling for animal blood , he sure needed some guidance, he needed to learn how to control his new powers.

When Damon learned about his transformation he was not very surprised but a bit of him felt bad for Jeremy's lost humanity. It's not like he wanted to trade but...in a weird way he'd seen Jeremy as a young version of himself. He had the same intensity in grudging and loving that had dominated Damon once and in the end it had led him straight down the same path. And in a twisted way Jer becoming a vampire was like he'd died a second time, once again affirmed that people like them weren't made for humanity.

Their unlikely friendship had evolved quickly into a sense of mentor-ship and Damon much preferred Jeremy playing the part of his little brother than him being Stefan's.

"Hungry?", he asked his protégé and a grin and a nod after they were flashing through the woods, soundless and so fast they were almost invisible.

For the first time in days he didn't think of Millie, he just trailed through the woods and let himself be guided by instincts. He was on hunt and it felt good. It felt like himself. Strong and certain. Efficient and never hesitating.

He loved how the chilly night air hit his cheeks, he liked how it made his head free, how it took him away from what seemed to be a situation that he was already knee-deep sunk in.

With the blood not yet dry on their lips they returned home, to find Stefan missing again. Him and Elena were probably doing stuff now he didn't like to picture but to his surprise the stinging pain in his chest was not more than a faint shadow of what it used to be.

"That was good, wasn't it?", Jeremy asked grinning and seemed pleased with himself.

"You're getting better", Damon acknowledged, "Soon you won't need me around anymore"

"But you'll still join me, right?", he asked, looking a bit like one of those puppies you were supposed to buy out of boxes on the street to safe them from dying, "It's more fun together"

Damon simply nodded, he quite liked it, too, it was like he finally had someone to share the fun side of being a creepy monster with someone, other than his brother who really despised what they were.

"So man, what's been happening? Elena keeps telling me about this new girl...Mel...what's her name? Millie?", Jeremy asked, pushing his big ol' thumb right into Damon wounds.

"Seriously, I don't know what the fuss is all about", he hoped his voice came across half as believable as his casual shrug.

"I heard she's pretty hot"

"Because these guys have no idea, she's not hot, she's...I don't know man, she's...I mean, what does hot even mean? Such profane choice of wording", he had no idea what he was saying.

"So she's not hot? More like...ugly?", Jeremy was very persistent about his gossip-update.

"She's not ugly, not...at all but...I...er, I don't know, I didn't spend much time looking at her", obviously a big fat lie, but obvious enough for Jeremy? Hopefully not. Hopefully he'd just drop it. And move on to Savannah's rumored nose job.

"Dude, I swear, I never heard you stutter that much in one sentence, I actually think I've never heard you stutter ever before", he laughed and if Damon had any blood in his body his earlobes would have turned red, they burned anyway. He hated to feel so stupid, like a schoolboy caught sneaking into the girls dressers.

"I didn't stutter, I was thinking about your question and wanted to give you an accurate answer", why did he feel like he had to explain himself?

"Well...it wasn't all that accurate", he still smiled amusedly, "but if I didn't know better I'd say Damon Salvatore has a crush on the new girl"

"Don't be ridiculous"

"Why?", he sat up, suddenly very engaged, "What would be so bad about it?...Theoretically speaking"

He wasn't going to answer this, it was a trick. He wouldn't.

"Because it never ends well. Theoretically speaking", _why can't you just keep it shut?_

Jeremy's face darkened visibly, he was thinking of Anna, how he'd lost her, how it hadn't ended well but he wasn't letting it go.

"You don't know that", and with that he rose, "I wouldn't have taken you for a wimp, Salvatore"

"Easy there, kiddo", it came of more threating as intended, but Damon was on his feet, too.

"There's a saying, you know", Jeremy said after just a second of a flinch, "it goes like this: 'To be afraid of love is to be afraid of life and those afraid of life are already two thirds dead...' Strangely fitting, don't you think"

"You sound like a fortune cookie", Damon said but couldn't help but to admire this boys guts, but since he was strong enough now to take him down, he saw where the confidence came from and he couldn't be mad at him...he would've done the same thing.

"Either way", Jeremy said, already on the window branch, getting ready to jump, "I always thought you weren't afraid of anything"

As the newborn vampire disappeared into the shelter of the night, Damon thought about his words, their echo still hanging in the air.

He might actually be afraid. Afraid of his own mind, heart, body, afraid to loose the last string attaching him to how he used to be, afraid to...fall. And not being able to catch himself again. Afraid that he would have to trust someone else with catching him.

He was a loner, a stand-alone, die-alone kind of guy, he hadn't always been but life and love especially, had been burned too many times to look for the fire on purpose.

But still he'd found it. As if he'd been meant to be. Her hair of fire, her eyes of sparkle, they'd drawn him right to her, like a fly radiating towards the light bulb. To be burned?


	5. Burn, Burn, Burn

**Author's Note: **SlightLemons ahead. Just saying.

Guys, if you've enjoyed this so far, please drop me a line and tell all your friends to read :) I think this is going to be a good one. Thanks, I heart you all!

**Chapter Five**

**Burn, Burn, Burn**

The air was still and full of that sweet peachy scent mixed with rain on a summer day that he would always remember, when Damon Salvatore stood in front of Millie Shaw's house in the middle of the night. It flew to him all the way from her wide open window.

He had thought long about what Jeremy had said and he wasn't really sure why he was there but he was well aware that it had been inevitable. Like she'd told him.

He wasn't going to give anything up. He wasn't going to tell her anything, he wasn't going to...do anything about it. He just needed to look at her. He thought that, if he only looked closely enough he would find what was so compelling about her to him, why she haunted his dreams, why he felt he was in the wrong spot when he was away from her.

He stood inside her pitch black bedroom half a blink later and still felt the curtains flatter behind him from the speed. She lay in her bed, peacefully asleep, her ginger hair curling on the pillow while her steady breaths strangely calmed him, she was alright and safe and beautiful and there wasn't anything wrong about that. This way she didn't pose a threat, this way, she couldn't hurt him, this way, with him in the room, she couldn't be taken away from him. But he still wasn't close enough.

It wasn't like he couldn't see her well enough, he saw every pore, every little piece of her face but it was like a law of nature, he had to be closer, there was no backing off now, he was already too far in. But the closer he came the less deep her breath became. He knew that he should better run, she could wake up any second but it was like fighting the pull of a dark hole, there was no escape now.

But he did slow down, just to hear how her breath become shallow and as he knelt beside her it hardly reached his face.

Her face was a perfect oval, her nearly symmetrical features so innocent and so overwhelmingly sensual hit nearly took _his _breath.

And then her face changed, it wasn't so peaceful anymore, it seemed bidding, begging, demanding, needy and almost desperate and when her lips parted it took a second until he realized that she had said his name.

"Damon", she said it again, calling him, pleading for something but he didn't know for what, her eyeballs were running underneath her lids, she breathed harder, as if she was running towards him and before he knew it, her eyes were wide open, reflecting the pale moonlight like an emerald.

She looked him straight in the eye and she didn't seem one bit surprised to find him sitting beside her bed, taking her in like a madman.

Another set of ragged breaths later, coming from both of them, him too startled to function, he felt her tiny hands grab his shirt forcefully.

He could feel the kiss coming up long before it happened and even though it only took seconds, he felt like slow-motion. She stared down in his lips and ever so subtle wet her own, letting her tongue trail along her bottom lip, she took a short hard breath and then she pulled him closer.

As if she had needed to.

He had no idea what was happening, the moment their lips met it was as if nothing had ever mattered before, as if anything was meaningless but this moment and then he knew that this was happening too fast, that it was so surreal, it was hard to trust that it was actually happening.

But when her tongue persistently made her way to meet his and she started to crush her lips against his more forcefully he felt a flash of arousal that was too real, too evident and too mind-consuming to be only the product of his imagination. Her face touching his, so firm and yet so light was about the realest thing he'd ever felt. For the first time in decades he felt like he was really somewhere, all of him, his mind, body and soul in one place.

He was never a hundred percent in the room, but with her he was. His palms lay on her cheeks as he held her in still, deepening the kiss out of complete selfishness, it was such a rush and he needed more of it.

This all happened so fast, so out of the blue but it didn't feel the slightest bit odd, in comparison, it felt like, for the first time, he was doing just the right thing. Like he had waited for this without even knowing it. He sucked at her lip, let his tongue twirl around hers and enjoyed the fireworks going off everywhere their skin touched.

He was still surprised that he had not even the slightest desire to bit her, all his needs towards her were physical, he wanted her like a man wanted a woman, pure and true and whole-heartedly and human. As human as it could get.

He had always liked sex, it was great outlet and it was fun...but this...what he wanted to do to her, what he needed her to do to him was way more that just that. It already felt essential and they had barely touched yet.

She seemed to feel quite the same way though, because she let go of his shirt only to grasp his upper body and pull him to her, next to her and soon on top of her. He was quick enough to remove the sheet covering her, so when he towered over her he could feel her heated body underneath him, his hard-on pressed bittersweetly against her flaming hot thighs as she wrapped her legs around him.

He kissed her again, hard, on last time before he went down to her neck, kissing it, sucking it and being very careful not to let his razor sharp teeth hurt her fragile skin. She panted into his ear and she pushed herself tighter around him, locking him between her legs while she dug her fingernails into his back. For the moment she shifted her position and moved her pelvis against his he had to pause the kisses, simply because he couldn't close his mouth from the silent moan. His jeans were way too tight.

But her sweet skin was too appealing to stay away for long and when he started again, he let his left hand trail down her body carefully, softly and tauntingly slow, enjoying every gasp he could elicit from her.

"Oh", she whispered, "please don't make me wake up"

He paused with his hand resting on her hip. Did she really think she was sleeping? Did she think she was dreaming this?

Was he dreaming this?

"You are awake", he whispered back, very close to her ear and kissing her right below it, as if to prove and then she felt her freeze.

Her fingernails still grasped his shirt, her legs were still tightly clasped around his lower body, still causing him the most extraordinary sensations but she had stopped breathing and he was worried enough to let go of her neck to find her eyes wide open, starring at him as if she saw him for the very first time.

"So this is...real?", she said, barely audible.

"Doesn't it feel real?", he asked, moving himself ever so slightly to the right places to make her lose control of the muscles in her face for a second.

"But I thought you didn't want anything to do with me", she breathed when she could again.

"You didn't believe that for one second", it wasn't a question and he placed one gently kiss on her already bruised lips, "I don't know who or what you are but you are like a drug to me, and you knew it before, that this was inevitable, I have no idea how but you did"

"I hoped", she said and he knew that this wasn't the whole answer, but that could wait.

That could wait for a whole while. He'd just ignited and he wanted to burn, burn, burn.


	6. Companion

**Author's Note: **Please review...everyone who likes it, or doesn't...just give me a little feedback, so that I can improve this story and will know how people respond to it..I can't guess and I can't read your minds, so please do tell me, it will be greatly appreciated!

Hi to Cassidy for reviewing every chap up to date and Danielle for being awesome :)

Now enjoy the solving of the Millie-mystery. I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter Six**

**Companion**

When the first rays of sunlight slid through the curtains of Millie's typical teenage-girl bedroom, Damon was immediately awake as usual when the sun came out. But this night his sleep had been deeper and more useful than ever, he felt like he could do everything, strong and powerful.

And the girl still sound asleep in his arms was to thank for that. They hadn't had sex, no, halfway through their night together he'd pulled the breaks, something indeed very uncommon for him to do. But he'd looked down at her pearly face, saw a single drop of sweat running down the side of her temple, how she smiled at him, happy but still...afraid, anxious, nervous. It was then that he remembered how young she was, how innocent. And even if that hadn't stopped him ever before it stopped him then.

She was too precious to just use, to just satisfy his rioting needs and leave her dry, he would with all means necessary guard her innocence until she was ready, until he could be absolutely sure that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, enough to give herself to him.

He contemplated once over these weird feelings and how they were nothing like him to feel but this second, watching her sleep and knowing her safe beside him, he was too dully happy to process that he wasn't at all like the Damon Salvatore he always thought he was.

She'd changed him and he hadn't even noticed. And now she lay beside him and he couldn't remember how it had felt when she hadn't been there, imagining her gone was not doable, he couldn't tell anymore how it felt to not care about someone so much you would take a bullet for her, or a stake in his case. He didn't know how it felt to be careless, to be ruthless, it seemed the second he gave in to the overwhelming need to be with Millie he'd given this part of himself up. He didn't know yet how he felt about this.

But he didn't have time to think about it, because she stirred slightly and then moved, light as a feather on top of his chest, taking a deep breath and he could sense from the change in the air that she was awake.

He gently stroke her fiery hair out of her face and was greeted with a twinkle of her emerald eyes and a smirk, somewhat triumphant.

"You're still here", she stated, her voice still brittle from sleeping.

"I wasn't going anywhere", he replied, again sinking into her gaze, taking her in and needing more and more of it.

"Or maybe I'm still dreaming", she sighed and sat up a little on top of him, then tilted her head and came steadily closer, finally giving him a small kiss that triggered his desires none the less, "but it still feels like reality"

"And you won't fool me that you're at all surprised", he felt like he was repeating himself but it was about time that she came clean, she owed him a couple of answers, "Who are you, Millie? Or what...I know you know what I'm talking about"

She, only inches away from him, pursed her lips and then sit back slightly, she looked like she was considering, phrasing her reply in her head or simply deliberating if she was to tell him the truth.

"Come on, I know you didn't just come to Mystic Falls by accident, I'm not...I wouldn't be so obsessed with someone normally"

"No, you're obsessed with me and that's for a good reason but it's not what you think", she finally said and he sat up too, having the inkling that she was about to tell him what was going on.

"Stop talking in riddles, Millie, you keep losing me", he half-smiled but made sure to put enough emphasis on his request to make her understand the urgency.

She didn't seem very happy but she also seemed to know that there was no way but to tell him, because he certainly wasn't going to let it go.

"So", she started by taking his hand into her tiny one, making it burn, causing wild flames just by that smallest of touch, "you found me, that day, you remember that"

"I hadn't been searching", he said shrugging, trying to hide his growing curiosity.

"Thing is, Damon, you were", she said gravely, "You maybe didn't know it, but you were"

"Go on", he could feel his features tighten.

"You found me because you eventually had to, or I had to find you, either way, as I said, it was inevitable that we would end up some same time in some same place", she smiled as if to confirm her words, "and if we met we would know that it had happened and then there would be no turning back...I was sure when I saw you, I just knew it was you and you must've felt it, too, elsewhere you wouldn't be here now"

"But why?", he saw what she was saying, he'd found her and it had been an addiction since the second to find her again and again, the only thing he didn't see was the reason.

"I didn't put a spell on you, if that's what you think, I had as much say in this as you...absolutely nothing", she said and gave him a meaningful look, "but it has something to so with the supernatural...with the supernatural about you"

"I don't know what you're talking about", his standardized answer sounded weak, even in his ears, she knew anyway, didn't she? She had known all along.

"I know what you are", she said, keeping her eyes locked with his, "I've known all the time, actually...what you are has about all to do with why this is happening to us"

He was lost for words, he wanted to know the secret but he couldn't say anything, was she really serious? He had seen enough in this town to not be surprised but he still couldn't understand.

"I am a _companion_", she said after a while, "I suppose you haven't heard of us, judging on your looks"

"No, I've not", he felt like a schoolboy getting lectured and felt stupid.

"The thing is...the more of you exist the more of us are born", she started, "we are born companions, girls, and sometime in our lives we find our match, the one we're supposed to accompany...a vampire...and when we found him...we...well...the purpose of our being is...um...we...we procreate. We can breed with vampires"

Damon shook his head on his body's account, he'd thought that was only a legend, she couldn't be serious.

"Good one", he said and let go of her hand, jumping out of her bed and standing a few feet beside it, looking down at her in disbelief.

"I'm being completely serious", she insisted pleadingly, "Once we found our match there's no going back, it's like an addictive cycle for both, I will never be able to not want you, and vice versa, you can't deny it, that's what we're made for, we are designed to be together, to have children together"

"But vampires don't procreate"

"Not usually, not all of them but the once who have a companion do", she said, "Look, what do you think I thought when I found out? I've known only for the summer. We always go to tis fortune teller because my mom is into this stuff and Madame Imelda told me what I was...I looked at her the way you look at me now but...everything suddenly made sense, I can't really explain but...Damon, I was surprised, too. It's one thing to think about having kids one day and another to know that you'll have a family with a vampire"

"But...what", that just had to be a joke, "I...I don't even want...I never thought about...I shouldn't have a family..no one asked me if I wanted a family...this isn't possible"

He reflexively went through his hair, stepping back and forth until her silky hand stopped him.

"Look", she stood an arms length away from him, "no one's asked me either and it's not like we have to have a child right now...but...I mean, I didn't believe that it would actually feel this way but...I for my part won't be able to walk away from this, from you"

"This makes no sense", he said, knowing that he, too, wouldn't be able to walk away from her but this was madness.

He of all people should be the father of an immortal child? He should be raising baby vampires? How messed up was that? He wasn't laid out to be a father, he wasn't laid out to be a human in the first place. He was a monster, a reckless, irresponsible monster, not someone you should trust with founding a family.

"Damon", her soft voice ended his trail of thoughts at once, "I didn't ask for this to happen but it did, I am what I am...I'm your companion, the two of us...it's meant to be...the only reason I was born was to be with you"

She stared up at him with her huge eyes, looking for comfort, for acceptance but he still wasn't able to get his head around what she'd just told him, it all strangely fit...though it couldn't be, could it?

"Please don't leave me", her voice was barely a whisper but it cut straight through him, the way she sounded so needy, so desperate, so afraid that he would actually leave her alone, so scared that he would do what they both knew he couldn't, he never wanted to hear her sound like that again, ever.

"I'm not leaving you", and it seemed so unreal to him to say that, after years of running away from attachment, after swearing to never let anyone become so important to him, he knew that he was never going to be capable of letting her go. If anything else she told him was a lie, the thing with the addiction was beyond true, he was never going to ween himself from her and that both strangely secured and eternally terrified him at the same time.

She still stood before him, unsure, helpless.

"I'm sorry", she said, "but I can't help any of this"

Even if he'd wanted, he couldn't have stop the movement his body made on its own accord as he stepped closer and slung his strong arms around her fragile body, holding her as tight as he could still ensuring she was able to breath.

"I don't know what this will do to me", he said, breathing her peachy scent and for once being absolutely sure of what he was saying, "but I'm never going to let you go"

And with the certainty of death he knew that he couldn't, even if he wanted to.

From now on, however it worked, their destinies were irrevocably entwined for eternity.


	7. Turning Heads

**Author's Note: **Yes, I know this is a filler chapter and it took me like forever to write it but my muse has been absent for a while but she might come back strong when tickled with lots and lots of reviews :D

**Chapter Seven**

**Turning Heads**

It had been a day since he'd seen Millie, leaving her reluctantly in her bedroom just before her parents got home from a week-end trip and they hadn't even exchanged numbers because it had all happened so fast. After she had dropped the bomb of their irrevocable companionship they sat down on her bed for a while and stared at each other. She would occasionally shake her head, somewhat in disbelief, mirroring his emotions but he was more disbelieving at the evident change of his feelings.

It felt so weird to be completely filled with affection, to not want to smash something, to not be...angry all the time. He had almost forgotten how that felt. And then they'd started talking about anything and everything, she'd asked about his taste in music and he had to confess that he wasn't much of a listener, causing her to play him her favorite songs and he even put up a smile when he didn't like the songs. If the real Damon, or at least the beast everyone thought he was, had seen this, he would've strangled him.

And they'd talked about Millie, about what she was and why he, having been vampire for quite a while, hadn't known about the existence of such companions.

"There aren't so many, not enough of us to be...common", she'd said, "The hybrid children grow up like humans, they're just a lot stronger and faster, they turn when they first drink human blood, which happens when they're considered ready and the companions, the women, they're turned after having the children normally, so there are no real evident vampire families walking around, at least not for long and...no one bothers to ask, why would they? Vampires don't usually notice the difference between a vampire hybrid and a real vampire, a vampire is a vampire"

It was still a lot to get his head around, that he was destined to be a father, initially he had been repulsed by the idea but the longer he thought about it the more he liked the idea of a small version of him walking around and...quite frankly it would have been a waste of genes, both his and hers.

They'd sat there until he heard the engine of her parents car stop in front of the house and then left in a hurry, with a quick kiss, well, as quick as they were able to break apart, and promised to pick her up on Monday to go to school.

Which he was doing and for the first time he thought that it had actually payed of to tell the headmaster of Mystic High that he wanted to finally make his high school-graduation (telling the big fat lie that he had never made one) and went back to join Elena and Stefan in their senior year. He had done it on a whim, originally to be closer to Elena but now...now it was the ideal situation because he could be with Millie, watch over her and protect her.

And with a whiff of air that flew from the motion, Millie came running out of the front door, smiling brightly and everything was just fine. If he'd still had a heartbeat, it would've stopped.

She swiftly got in to the car and let herself drop into the passenger seat, tilting her head.

"Good morning", she smirked, "I missed you"

"I missed you, too", he replied and it took a while until he could start the car and drove towards the school.

"So you're really sure you want to make us official?", Millie asked, "Isn't this a bit rushed?"

"Well, people need to get around to the fact, since we're having a baby soon", he joked but he didn't miss the flicker of fear in her eyes, "kidding"

"Elena is gonna be shocked", she stated after acknowledging his quickly added response, "she thought you hated me"

"Well, I'm sure I gave the impression", he said, pulling over to the school, "Stefan asked me yesterday why I didn't like you"

"What did you tell him?", Millie asked, sincerely curious.

"I told him that he wouldn't understand and that I absolutely do not not like you"

"Well, I guess it's on now", Millie smirked, catching the first surprised glances from the spectators on the schools parking lot, "this is going to be good"

Repaying the smirk, Damon got out of the car and walked around to open the door for her and helped her swiftly out of her seat. She glanced up at him with a twinkle in her eye and he smiled back reassuringly, letting the door shut with his one hand and holding on to hers tightly.

Saying they turned only several heads would be a crying understatement, everybody stared after them as they walked to the main building, most of all so Elena and Stefan, Stefan being more able to control his features, though his eyes spoke of distrust and wonder.

"Good morning", Damon grinned and couldn't help the mischievousness twist of his lips that his features did on their own accord, the only response he was used to giving to the suspecting look on Stefan's face.

Millie's palm in his seemed to fit just right, as if it had been made to complete it the way it did, he felt her blood rush even and strongly float through her veins. She was perfectly well.

"Damon", it was a warning and a question all wrapped in one as Stefan shot him a glare and a nod indicating that he wanted to talk, or better, interrogate, him in private.

"Here comes the fun part", Damon sighed, squeezed Millie's hand and kissed her softly on the cheek, "be right back"

Turning his head he left the girls, Millie radiantly happy and Elena utterly confused to a state where her whole face seemed to ave fallen apart in surprise, he followed Stefan to the football field, internally squealing about his struggle to process what he'd just witnessed.

"What are you up to, Damon?", Stefan cut right to the chase.

"What do you mean?", he played dump for the sheer entertainment of it, "If you're allowed a girlfriend so am I"

"Damon, this is not some sick joke, I thought we were clear on that, you can't hurt or turn or kill anymore people here"

"I have no intention of doing either, I could never hurt Millie", he said, his features not betraying the seriousness of his statement because it was the sheer truth, "I love her"

"This is not funny", Stefan looked like a living grave-yard, as usual.

"And I'm not joking", he could be straight faced just as well, "I told you you can't possibly understand this"

"How am I supposed to buy one word of this? You've been avoiding her like the plague since she came here, what tells me you're not planning anything?"

"Man, bro, how about a little trust, a little faith in your brother", Damon said with a smirk, apart from the fact that he really wanted to make Stefan see that he would never harm Millie, he was also wildly enjoying the taunting him, "Seriously for once, Stefan, I love her and not just because she's smart and funny and beautiful but also because I kind of have to, she's my companion"

As if struck by lightening the expression on Stefan changed from skeptical to considering.

"It's nothing more than a legend, there are no real companions", he insisted after a while, "it's just a myth"

"Believe me, it is not", for once Damon was dead serious, he was getting bored by Stefan's stubbornness in distrusting his motives, "When she came here I had no idea what was happening and I avoided her for that fact, because she pulled me to her and I didn't like it because I couldn't understand it but...it's impossible to run and it's not like with Katherine where I just happened to not love her anymore, I can't stop loving her because it's a natural state, she found me and know she's as much a part of me as I'm a part of her. It's all true, there are companions, for a few of us out there and they breed, and eventually, some day, I am going to be a father"

Stefan just stared at him, disbelieving, wondering, weighing weather or not to trust his words.

"You can ask her", Damon tried one last time, "but if you ever ever had reason to believe me, you can believe me now, I love her, Stefan, I'm bound to love her, it's an unchangeable fate"

"I'm keeping an eye on you", Stefan huffed finally, "If I see her bruising or hurt in any other way, you will have to face the consequences"

"Whatever", Damon rolled his eyes at his brothers big words and trailed back, with his a couple of paces behind, to the school where Millie stood, still happy as a clam and Elena still more than less weirded out.

She mirrored most of the other students, more so Bonnie and Caroline who seemed completely taken aback from the sight of Damon, wearing a big fat grin, walking hand and hand through the corridor with Mystic Highs newest fantasy girl.

A little later at lunch when Millie was getting something to eat, Elena sat down beside Damon and eyed him curiously.

"I thought you didn't even like her", she finally said, keeping her eyes cast at Millie.

"I thought so too", Damon replied, "but turns out that I do...a lot"

"Who are you and what have you done to Damon?", she asked more serious than joking.

"I guess you have to ask her", he said slowly, watching his girlfriend coming back to them and sit down at their table.

"What are you talking about?", she asked briskly, biting from her apple.

"Nothing", Damon smiled and took her hand, completely oblivious to all the eyes turned on them in the cantine.


End file.
